Climate activist Greta Thunberg chose to renounce her place as a finalist for the Children’s Climate Prize. The reason being that the other finalists (six young people) and their guardians are flying to Stockholm to attend the three-day meeting known as Children’s Climate Prize and Talks – a platform where children and young people are given recognition and a space to inspire, exchange knowledge and network with politicians and business owners.

”Our generation will never be able to fly (among other things), other than for emergencies. Because the adult generations have used up all our carbon budget”, Greta Thunberg wrote on Twitter.

Greta is right. Out of a global carbon budget of 1-2 tonnes per person per year, the average Swede consumes 11 tonnes, making our lifestyles quite untenable. The climate issue is humanity’s biggest challenge, and for that very reason, Telge Energi has firmly taken a stand to contribute to 100 per cent renewable energy by, among other things, exclusively selling 100 per cent renewable electricity for over 10 years.

So why fly?

The Children’s Climate Prize is more than just an award ceremony, it is a place for children and young people who pursue sustainable development to meet. The choice to have the finalists congregate in Stockholm has been made on the basis that change takes place through meetings. And it is difficult to transport people CO2-free from countries like Peru or the United States. Something very special happens when children and young people from different cultures and backgrounds get together and exchange experiences, all with the common ambition to make this planet a better place.

By taking a stand, Greta has once again proved to us that she is the kind of activist we want to aid in her initiative and pay homage to through the Children’s Climate Prize. She reminds us that there is no single climate award that creates climate heroes, and while we are sad that Greta does not want to be one of this year’s finalists, we are respectful of her decision.

We at Telge Energy are still convinced that meetings between people and their shared knowledge and experiences are needed to cope with the challenges we face. Greta’s attitude makes us even more conscious and challenges us to take further steps for ourselves, making the Children’s Climate Prize an even better model and inspiration for sustainability.

About the Children’s Climate Prize

The Children’s Climate Prize is a meeting place and a platform that makes it possible for all the initiatives and projects to reach a wider audience and to inspire more people to contribute themselves. The prize was initiated when we became aware of the fact that the voices of young people seldom are heard in the climate debate, and that many young people are unable to attend climate summits and other places where decisions about their futures are made. They face difficult and heavy opposition to be seen or heard at all, not the least of which being because of their age. We wanted to change that and thus initiated the Children’s Climate Prize.

Besides Greta, six other people, Maanasa Medu (15 years, USA), Nikita and Sofia-Khrystyna (13 years, Ukraine), José Adolfo (13 years, Peru) and two representatives from the “25 Voices against Deforestation” together with their guardians have been invited to Stockholms to meet other young people who are doing change work and struggling to put sustainability- and justice issues on the agenda. The kids come from different countries, from different conditions and we have seen that, at times, the prize has been crucial for some of them to be able to take their initiative to the next level. Of course, we are climate-compensating the trips that the finalists and their followers take to participate.

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